Feel throughout the smell: Connection between smells and emotions

People who work in the world of fragrances are exposed to hundreds of odors a week. Our office is a sensorial experience. A smell of sweet Orange is perceived at the end of the hall, while on the other side begins to get the intense smell of Agarwood Laos. And suddenly, Tahiti Monoi & Coconut! This diversity of fragrances is part of our daily life.

At Dauper we are passionate about the sense of smell. Fragrances enhance our lives in subtle yet profound ways. Distinctive smells give sensory definition to our daily lives, contributing to mood and influencing the way we relate to places and people. The potential of the sense of smell comes from the amygdala, which is the center of the brain that controls all our emotions.

Of the five senses that we humans have, there is only one that is active 24 hours a day, the sense of smell. Studies claim that 75% of our emotions are related to odors and we can smell up to a trillion different fragrances such as aroma of coffee in the early morning, the smell of clean clothes, freshly baked bread or perhaps Comforting smell of loved ones. So, science corroborates that we live surrounded by emotions for our senses.

Have you ever gone somewhere and have you recognized a certain smell that without knowing how, have you remembered happy memories of your past? Surely yes. Situations like this make our brain open certain emotions that were in “the back of our memory.” And it is that the scents exert a great influence on our emotions.

The ability to smell comes from specialized sensory cells, called olfactory sensory neurons. Each olfactory neuron has an olfactory receptor. So, the number of odors in the environment is greater than the number of receptors we have in the nose. Therefore, any molecule can stimulate a combination of receptors, and create a unique representation in the brain. The brain records each of these representations as a scent.

The sense of smell decisively affects our perceptions, influencing our desires and therefore our behavior. Of the five senses is the one that is most directly linked to our brain (more than any other sense). The information comes first to the limbic system and the hypothalamus, which are responsible for our emotions, feelings, impulses.

They also store the memory contents and control the release of hormones. It is the reason that aromas can directly modify our behavior and some bodily functions. Only part of the information of the aroma later reaches our cerebral cortex to become something conscious.